Terry Waldele's Discussions

Are you interested in knife politics and laws? If so, read on.Member Clint Thompson recently posted a poll of iKC members entitled "HELP! FELLOW iKC MEMBERS. I NEED YOUR HELP", in which he asked…Continue

After my latest fishing trip, which I discussed in this group earlier, I decided to look into the design and creation of a handmade multi-purpose hiking staff. There is one on the market made by…Continue

If you own an especially cool Ethnic Knife or sword, which we have defined as one that is handmade, custom-made, traditionally-styled, tribal or ceremonial, and it's an antique (i.e., 100 yrs old or…Continue

Welcome, Terry Waldele!

Latest Activity

"I've been very busy with many projects and finally have got most of them done.. :). As to the 317 it is progressing just a bit. I have managed to get the blades back to a point with a lot of work and I also discovered that the main blade…"

"Wally
.
The absence of any tools is a detriment to accomplishing this yourself. It does throw a definite impediment into the process.
.
However, you do imply you've the skills & confidence to fabricate a pattern out of balsa wood .. that is…"

"I've not got any tools I could work wood or bone with but I do have an idea. I used to build model planes using Balsa wood when I was around 11 yrs old.
I got to thinking about using Balsa wood to make the pattern and use it get where it…"

"Thanks for transferring the pertinent pics, Jan..
I'm w/ Derek on this one .. it would be a great time to replace both scales. And the old scale on the other side could be used as a "pattern" when making the new scales. The choice of…"

"Unfortunately I picked this knife up at an antique mall/flea-market so I don't have much history on it. I know I had seen this knife a few weeks back and I believe it looks about the same now as when I had first laid eyes on it. If…"

"Andy,
Does this knife, or any knives that were stored near this knife, have celluloid handles? If those blades were clear a week ago and suddenly became as they are seen in those pictures then I would have to think that they were exposed to a…"

"first let me ask, do we know how the rust happened? I have to agree with D ale that it appears they have been near a celluloid that gassed.
The reason I ask that is simple, they tend to just continue to corrode and that can make a difference…"

Profile Information

Profile

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots . . .
- Thomas Jefferson

We have met the enemy and it is the deluded belief that American capitalism is sacred and self-regulating. We also suffer from our deluded trust in the goodness of our fellow Americans which leads us to believe that politicians, elected officials and appointed public officials need not have any substantive minimum education or other minimum qualifications to be elected or appointed, nor do they need any limits on campaign donations, any age limits, any restrictions on serving as lobbyists after public service, or any limits on multiple terms in office.
- Me

Terry Waldele's Photos

Terry Waldele's Blog

Someone in McMinnville, Oregon has listed their grandfather's entire stock of knife making tools, equipment and huge stock of materials for sale in the Portland, Oregon craigslist. If you're interested, here's the link to the craigslist listing. This listing includes a link to a site with over 260 pictures of the sale items.

Oh, just a FAST fix for your recurve blades. Get a cheap synthetic stone, cut it into finger stones (whatever size you will be able to hold securely in your hand). Do it with a small hammer and a knife with a flat belly unless you have a rock-splitting chisel or stone saw and then just tap it slowly into the stone. Eventually it will break in two, try to keeps the taps controlled and make sure the force is constant at the same angle, you don't want to switch angle inside the stone.

After that you can get a Belgian Coticule bout stone along with some finger stones to get the slurry up. I can recommend many other stones but it depends on the kind of finish and action you want from the stone. The reason why is because coticule also works great for restoration, because they consist of garnets they cut differently than other stones. So, if you grind it down into a powder, apply some water and dip your fingertip in the powder and then rub on the steel, you have full control of how much good vs bad oxidized steel you remove with the addition that the garnets won't leave scratches because of their round shape (perfect for restoring filemarks or details like stamps too).

Now I'm off to deal with my bloody 17-pack of chisels I have to restore. Blargh, some stuff are 80-100 years old, the steel has become insanely hard from age-hardening! Most chisels are aged for a max of 20-30 years. Boy it's harsh to bring these puppies out, but it will be worth every second after it's all done.

May I ask what your main tools are? I take it that you work mainly with stones and compounds (like rust removers, abrasive powders etc etc, all the stuff that goes into restoring).

The very hardest thing to make on a stone is a perfect belly. It depends if you meant a single or double bevel because the second option is much more easy. On the first one you basically have to step into the hardest sharpening process in the world, combining tangents into one single flush bevel.

I take it you aren't working with single bevel tools however so that shouldn't be a problem. I would say that you need a good bevel gauge (if you don't already have one) and some tips of how to work on the stones.

If you want to I am more than happy to share what I can with you (so far 1 out of 50 has listened to me about sharpening, the rest are hellbent on powertools. Sorry to ask such a question but it's frustrating to type up long replies only to have them land on uninterested eyes). Basically what I specialize in is perfection polishing, I have two separate rooms when I polish to keep out coarse particles from the foundation stage (shaping and sharpening stage) when I move to the polishing stage. At that point it's all cosmetic polish, way beyond functional sharpness (20k grit plus, natural stone ofcourse).

Tell me what you think and if you like it we can start sorting out your problem of getting flush bevels. Once you get the feeling for it then it will be there. Similar to riding a bicycle, when you develop that "sense" you feel exactly where the steel is touching the stone and can literally ride it in any direction, at any part of the stone.

The stage after that is how to wear down a stone evenly so that you don't have to dress them - saves material and time, but we'll get to that later :)